Troubleshooting Monitors With Michael

Knowing where to start when your monitor goes out can be a valuable time saver when repairing arcade games. In this post, our resident monitor repair guy Michael will give us some quick tips on how to troubleshoot some common issues.

Troubleshooting Monitors With Michael

There is not a whole lot of difference between an arcade monitor and a regular tv. The same electronic principles used in arcade monitors are also used in televisions. Knowing how to repair arcade monitors can help in repairing not just older televisions but newer televisions as well.

If your arcade monitor won’t come on, a good place to start is in the power supply. Follow the power cord from the connector to the chassis. This should lead you to the primary power supply. Check to see if there is a fuse around this area. If so, check the fuse to see if it is bad or good. If the fuse is bad, replacing it might not solve your problem. There is always a reason why a fuse blows. Check the surrounding components and make sure that they are not shorted to ground before replacing the fuse. You can refer to our article on Checking Fuses With A Multimeter for more information on fuses.

We have already talked about how dangerous arcade monitors can be in our Safely Discharge An Arcade Monitor post, however, this point can not be reiterated enough. Please be careful around the suction cup as it contains an anode that goes to the monitor tube. The wire coming out of the suction cup is attached to the flyback. A flyback can put out a large amount of volts depending on the chassis. If you suspect flyback trouble, the first thing to check is the HOT (Horizontal Output Transistor) with a standard multimeter to see if it’s shorted. If it is shorted, that’s a good indication that you have a bad flyback. If you hear a hissing noise around the flyback that might indicate that the casing is cracked. If upon futher examination you find that the casing is in fact cracked, replace the flyback.

Another good thing to know is that while cap kits can be helpful they will not fix everything. Some signs that might you need a cap kit include washed out colors, vertical drop, and/or lines across the top of the screen. A bad electrolytic capacitor will often swell or bulge at the top or leak out of the bottom, however, they can still be bad even if they don’t look bad. It’s a good idea to go ahead and replace all the caps if you are going to do one. A cap kit is easy to do and cap kits are pretty inexpensive.

If your monitor only displays a thin horizontal line in the middle, check the IC (Integrated Circuit) that powers the vertical to see if it is good and to see if it is getting power. You can check it with a standard multimeter.

You don’t need expensive tools to work on monitors. A good soldering iron and a multimeter will allow you to troubleshoot the majority of arcade monitor problems. ESR (Equivalent Series Resistance) meters also help as they allow you to check capacitors in circuit so you don’t have to desolder and remove them to see if they are bad.

Well, good luck in the future with all of your arcade monitor troubleshooting. If you have any questions for Michael, please feel free to post them in the comments section below.

We received a question on YouTube about a Centipede arcade machine with no picture on the monitor but was getting the correct voltage from the isolation transformer. Here was our response:

When you move arcade games it’s easy for a connector to come loose. The first thing we would do after checking the power going to the monitor would be the video input cable coming from the PCB. Make sure the edge connector on the PCB is secure. You might even want to unplug it and plug it back in to get a fresh connection. Follow the wires that go from the PCB edge connector to the monitor chassis and make sure that connector is plugged in good as well.

If you have checked both the monitor power cord and the video input cable, you might check for a glow on the neck of the monitor. Turn on your arcade game and turn off all the lights to see if the neck glows. If you don’t see a glow, then you could have a problem with your chassis.

It’s also important to make sure that your board is getting the correct voltage. If the problem is just in your monitor, you should still hear the game play through your speakers. If you don’t hear the game, you could have a problem with your board and not necessarily your monitor.

GaryAugust 10, 2009

Hello. I have a Midway Skins game. It was working fine except the top 1″ or so of the screen was skewed to where you could read the top text. Anyway, I took the back off for the first time a noticed a black wire that was connected but not woth tape. I touched it and it came apart. I had the game on so I turned it off immediately. I fastened it together and turned the game back on. Now I had gotten skewing and the actual piture broken in segments. I did like you said and unplugged the connector from the pcb and from the neck circuit board and plugged them back in. Now it has a light red solid screen that has lines through it but it is steady and no movement? Can you help? Thanks, Gary

This sounds like quite a dilemma but don’t despair, there is hope. First thing you want to do is check your power supply voltages going to the PCB. You can watch our video on Checking And Replacing A Power Supply for more information. Also, does your game have sound when you turn it on? You can try coining it up if it does not have sound in the attract mode. If you have sound, your board is probably fine and it’s probably your monitor. Otherwise, you might have a board problem. If you have some pictures please send them to us as they would be very helpful for troubleshooting.

Thanks for your question and please let us know if there is anything else we can do.

DirkAugust 27, 2009

Hey Guys. I recently had the flyback replaced on my NBA Jam monitor because of some serious arcing. That issues has been corrected but now I have a distortion at the top of the screen. I believe I have tried all of the tuning controls but cannot decrease the distortion. I have an electrical engineer neighbor who has offered to help but we need direction. Any suggestions? Thanks for your time.

This is a pretty common issue with arcade monitors. Typically the problem resides in the vertical section of the chassis. This is located around the vertical IC chip which is mounted to a heatsink that is typically near the flyback. Try checking capacitors in this section with an ESR meter and replacing any that are bad. Also, check the round orange disc caps in this area as they can cause this problem as well. If you have problems finding the vertical section, please send us a picture of your chassis and we’ll help you locate it.

Please let us know if you need any more assistance and good luck with your repair!

RustySeptember 4, 2009

I just purchased a “Toobin” video game. Right now. The screen is very dim and has a greenish hue. I can’t brighten it up with the brightness knob. Any suggestions? Thank you.

Brian BocheSeptember 9, 2009

Well guys, it happened, my kids were playing my arcade game and the monitor all of a sudden went black, nothing at all. I watched your vid and then checked the fuse, which was fine, and power coming out of the isolation transformer all the way to the monitor itself and that was fine also. I did not see any orange glow on the monitor itself, and I checked that in pitch darkness. Would the H O T be my next check? and how to do that? Thanks for all the great tips and videos.

Brian

PhilSeptember 14, 2009

Hey guys, I have an arcade game that seems to work fine, but the color is off. I have tried all of the adjustments, but it doesn’t get better. From what I can tell, there is no green (the colors look either very blue or very red). Any ideas of what could cause this and how to fix?

Check for loose solder joints around the pins on the chassis where the video wires come in from the game PCB. You might also want to check the connector on these same wires. If both look to be in good shape then it could be a transistor or potentiometer on your neck board. Try reflowing the solder around these parts or replacing them.

Thank you for your question and let us know if we can help you further.

First place we would start is with the adjustment knobs on the neck board. Play with these adjustments to see if you can get the result you want. Also, remember that most monitors have an adjustment for brightness on the chassis. Make sure this is turned up as well. If you do not have any success with the adjustments, a cap kit is highly recommended.

I have Midway skins game that worked great until I turned it on last week….The monitor was blank but the sound was running in the background….The monitor works during test runnning, but not with the game…Any thoughts???

JeffOctober 30, 2009

I also just purchased a Toobin’ My problem is that everything seems to have a yellow hue. There is no white. I just recapped the monitor and it still didn’t fix it. I have tried the rgb adjustments on the neck board. It appears that the blue cutoff adjustment doesn’t do much and there doesn’t seem to be much blue in the monitor. What would you recommend? I will try to reflow the solder on the neckboard pots. Anything else?

If reflowing the solder on the neckboard does not solve your issues with the blue cutoff, you might try replacing the pot entirely. If you do that and it still doesn’t look right then you might have a problem with your tube. At this point, you might try a tube rejuvinator. If you don’t have one, most local TV repair shops have one that they use from time to time. Keep in mind, however, that a tube rejuvinator is a short term fix for a long term problem and eventually you’ll need to replace your tube entirely.

Sounds like you have some problems with your Midway Skins board. Since Midway Skins is a JAMMA game, we would suggest swapping out the board for another JAMMA game to see if it comes up. This will verify if it’s the board or your monitor. If the monitor comes up with the other board plugged in, you have a problem with your Midway Skins board. Since Midway Skins also has a hard drive, you might trying replacing the hard drive first instead of the full board. These hard drives are usually available on eBay. Here’s a link for one: http://tr.im/DI1K. Of course, if you can find a good deal on the entire board set you might go that route.

Please let us know if there is anything else we can do to assist you and good luck.

JeffOctober 31, 2009

reflowing the solder on the pot didn’t work. I will try replacing the pot next.

I have a Nanao M8-26S (I think that’s the number.) that I just swapped from med. resolution to Standard Resolution. I now have some horizontal lines at the top of the monitor that I didn’t have before. I’ve tried every adjustment and the only way I can get them to go away is to shrink the vertical size. Of course that squooshes (never really tried to spell that before, hmm.) everything. Any suggestions? I’ve also noticed that the monitor occasionally gets darker then back to normal. I really hate cap kits, so if you have a better suggestion I would appreciate it.

Jeff

WillNovember 11, 2009

I recently purchased a Pole Position arcade game. The individual I spoke to said the monitor would occasionally have white lines that would come on to the monitor, but you could still see the image. When I picked up the arcade it worked fine and then all of a sudden the image became skewed and it started rotating vertically and horizontally. I played with the horizontal tilt and vertical tilt and was able to slow it down, but the image is still moving. Sound works and you can play through the game but it is hard to avoid hitting other cars and signs as the image keeps moving. Is this the monitor going out or a problem with the video card. It has a 19 inch monitor in it. It is my understanding that replacement monitors can be switched in to take care of this problem. Is this true? If so, would you recommend using a CRT like the one that is in it, or upgrading to an LCD monitor replacement? Also, How difficult is it to replace the monitor? Is it a lengthy repair, or just unhooking a few cables, removing the old monitor and putting in the new one and rehooking a few cables? Have you ever dealt with LAX rotating machines? I have one that is having an issue with the buttons not working. Thanks, Will.

I hate to tell you this but this problem is typically caused by a bad cap. You could purchase an ESR meter to help you determine which caps are bad and just replace those. We have an analog ESR meter we got from MCM Electronics that was about $60. It is a big time saver, however, it’s really only worth the price if you plan on working on a lot of monitors.

Before we begin diagnosing this problem, we will say that in this case a picture or video would be very helpful. Just going on what you described, however, it sounds like the problem could be related to the video ROM on the Pole Position board. Dick Millikan is pretty well known for his ability to repair Pole Position problems if this is indeed the cause of your issue. If the problem is related to your board, a new monitor would not help. If you plan on keeping this game for several years, it is always a good idea to put a new monitor in it. We always recommend a CRT over a LCD to preserve the look and feel of the original game.

As far as replacing a monitor goes, it is not too difficult at all. This usually consists of removing four bolts from the front of the monitor, a video connector coming from the board and the power connector. It is recommended you have at least 2 people when attempting this repair. In our experience, it usually takes us under an hour to fully replace a monitor.

We really haven’t dealt with LAX rotating machines and we’re really not sure what one even looks like. With that being said, most buttons work on the same principles that we discuss in our video on Wiring A Push Button. Please send us some pictures so we can assist you further on this issue.

Thanks for your questions and please let us know how your repairs are going.

RandelNovember 27, 2009

I have a Ghost and Gobblins with a Hantarex MTC900 that the top of the play screen is in the middle of the screen. I have replaced the pot that adjusts the vertical positioning. Any idea where to begin? The monitor has been recapped by someone before.

It sounds like you are having a problem in your vertical IC chip on your monitor chassis. This problem is fairly common and is pretty easy to fix. You want to start off by finding the vertical section of your monitor chassis. There is usually a yellow wire that comes off of your tube and connects to the chassis, the vertical section should be located somewhere around that yellow wire. In the vertical section, there should be an IC chip. Sounds like this chip has failed and has caused your problem. Replace this and that should fix your problem. If you don’t feel comfortable doing this, you can send just the chassis off to us and for a small fee we will replace this chip for you.

We have also featured your question on episode 1 of our Q&A podcast. Look for it to be posted on our website soon. Thank you for your question and good luck with this and all of your future projects.

I have a Leathal Enforcers II game (1994) that has had very little use as I bought it from the orginal owner a year ago and it sat in his living room all that time. No problems until last night. A week ago I pluged in a Leathal Enforcers I board which I got on ebay. I used it for one game and it worked fine except the audio was out on one of the speaker (speaker works on L.E. II) When I turned on the game last night, I heard an odd sound and it turns out on the monitor I am getting about a one blue inch arc…loud and crackling. I unplugged the board completely and when I turned back on the power it still was arcing? Any thoughts? Alan

Well the first thing we would do is unplug just our monitor from our power supply and try to turn the game on. Hopefully you will start to hear board sounds. If you do, that tells us that your board is still working and that just your monitor was damaged. The arcing that you see is probably related to the flyback, however, it is hard to be sure without taking a look at the monitor chassis. If you’re not that familiar with working on arcade monitors we would suggest sending it to us for repair. Please let us know if this is the route you want to go or if you would like us to continue helping you troubleshoot this problem.

We have also featured your question on episode 2 of our Q&A podcast. Look for it to be posted on our website soon. Thank you for your question and good luck with this repair.

Katie DamaskeDecember 25, 2009

I purchased a great looking Donkey Kong cabinet from ebay for our family Christmas present. It came via FedEx freight. We have had it for 3 days now, never even took it off of the pallet yet, just pushed the pallet back against the garage wall and plugged it in. It worked great the first day, last night I noticed about a 5 inch semi-circle of washed out color at the top of the screen. The graphics were there, but the colors were sort of faded. This morning, the monitor is black. The top light board is lit and fine, but the monitor is black and pushing buttons does not bring sound. We unplugged it, counted to ten, plugged it back, nothing came on except the lit graphic at the top of the arcade machine. We are heartbroken!
The ebay listing said: This game works 100%. The picture is perfect on this newly rebuilt original Sanyo 20ez monitor. It is sharp, vibrant, bright, and beautiful. The buttons are brand new and the joystick is original. All controls work.
The light fixture has been replaced with a new one. The T-molding is also new.
To me, this meant a good machine with plenty of play time.

Any ideas? Much appreciated!

Katie DamaskeDecember 25, 2009

Update:

We had the machine plugged into the garage outlet continuously since it arrived (3 days). It snowed last night (first white Christmas in Dallas for over 80 years). Though it was in the upper 20′s outside during the coldest part, the garage was cold but not really cold (no need to wear a coat or anything).
It appears the machine is making sounds and playing games when buttons are pushed, but the monitor is completely black.
I have been looking on the internet and apparently monitors do not like cold, BUT it wasn’t too terribly cold in the garage, though the machine was placed next to an outside-facing wall (brick/wood exterior). Any chance that as the temp warms outside the monitor will come back to us?
I just can’t imagine something so simple destroying our game like that overnight.

AmandaDecember 26, 2009

Hello, I just purchased a cocktail sized Centipede. The gentleman I purchased it from has owned it for some time and had no issues with it. However after getting it home, I let it warm up at his suggestion for two hours at room temperature. We were able to play for about an hour and a half before the screen started scrolling and flickering. It reset itself to the start screen and continued to scroll. If you shut it off for a short period of time, say 30 minutes and turn it back on you cant quite get through one whole game before it begins to flicker and scroll. Seems to only happen when warm, so I took the back panel off and pulled the service button so the game would stay on and put a fan behind it to cool it and it made no difference. Checked all connections and everything seems to be attached securely. There is no discoloration to the screen, and the sounds works as it should. It was transported on its left side for the two hour ride to my brothers home and again moved the next day for 15 minutes to my fathers home where it sat on its side overnight in 20 degree temperatures as it was a Christmas gift yesterday. I don’t know if this gives you any ideas as to what may be wrong but I would appreciate any help. Thanks in advance. -Amanda

AmandaDecember 26, 2009

Also it is an original cabinet, Atari 1980. The Serial number on the back is 02018 and the Video # is AM 883329 Again thank you-

First off, we apologize for not getting back to you sooner. We took a short vacation over the Christmas and New Years holidays and are just now getting around to answering our questions. Before trying to troubleshoot this issue, we would first try and contact the seller to see if they could help us. Many times eBay sellers are more than willing to work out a deal on issues such as these.

With that being said, this really sounds like a monitor issue. First thing we would check is to make sure the monitor is plugged it from the bottom of the cabinet and is getting power. If the game is getting sounds but you don’t see anything, we call this symptom “playing blind.” When games are playing blind it’s a pretty good indication that your monitor is the problem. We would also check to make sure that the wires going from the PCB/Board to the monitor are making a good connection. Try these troubleshooting tips out and let us know if it fixes your problem.

We have also featured your question on episode 3 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your issue. Thank you for your question and good luck with your repair.

Sounds like you might be having a couple of issues here. The screen flipping issue is probably related to your arcade monitor and can usually be fixed with a simple adjustment. We recommend checking out our post on Adjusting An Arcade Monitor for more information on how to adjust the hold on your monitor. The game resetting issue, however, is probably related to your power supply. Check out our post on Checking And Replacing A Power Supply to help you see if you are getting the correct voltage. Your power supply might be older than the one in the video so it might be a good idea to refer to the manual on this game if you have it.

We have also featured your question on episode 3 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your issue. Thank you for your question and good luck with your repair.

KyleJanuary 11, 2010

On the left side on my street fighter 2 upright I have vertical lines of discoloration. It’s not too annoying once you start playing but I want to put in in my office and I want it to look good. Someone said it needed new gas in it? I didn’t quite understand that. I’ve adjusted color settings and things but I can’t get the vertical lines to go away. They are about 1 inch wide and are just discolored (lighter) than the rest of the screen. Thank you for any advice.

Jimmy DJanuary 14, 2010

Hi I hope you guys can point me in the right direction.
I have a Tekken 2 arcade game thats having monitor issues.It seems to come on for maybe 3 seconds and immediatly shuts off.I know its coming on because the neck lights up and then goes off,but everything else functions as it should.
Also have a space invaders game that seems to not boot at all.Screen has wierd objects on it ,have no sound.I tried cleaning connections to the board but still no luck.Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks Jim

EJanuary 18, 2010

Have a golden tee box it/jamma box that will turn on and start to play , can’t get the screen to center, wont go down to the last 4 inches of screen or so vertically . Then once it warms up the screen starts to wave and fade to white. Seems like that might be heat related as once cooled down again it functions as normal except the bottom of the screen. The dials on the adjustment board for the monitor wont let adjustment go any future.

I thought you might be able to get around the adjustment by changing the dial position while powered off but that didn’t help. Any ideas about the fade to white/wave would be nice. The picture can kind of come back but never to the same quality more of a hazy white.

This sounds a lot like a bad cap on your monitor chassis probably located in the horizontal or power sections. We would recommend doing a cap kit on the monitor. Please check out our post on Installing A Cap Kit for more information. If you need some help identifying your monitor, please send some pictures to us at questions@arcaderepairtips.com and we’ll help you out.

We have also featured your question on episode 4 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your issue. Thank you for your question and let us know if you have any others in the future.

SJJanuary 20, 2010

I’ve just bought a new cocktail table with the 60-in-1 board on it for my home. I had trouble with it at first and was sent new parts under warranty–monitor and chassis were replaced and ultimately the jamma board had to be replaced because it had shorted out. It was not secured to the bottom of the table, but lose inside and the tech thinks it might have touched metal and blown itself out. But now it’s working (whew. knock wood). I want to know the best way to preserve it’s working status.. Would you recommend turning it off at the end of each day or leaving it on? It does cycle through the games, so is burn in still a factor? Also, it retains the high scores, but the initials we enter into individual games are all wiped clean when we turn it off and back on–will that always happen? Thanks in advance!

BradFebruary 3, 2010

I have a San Francisco Rush that the monitor goes fuzzy/blurry within a few minutes of turning it on. Before I remove the monitor board to send it in for repair, is there anything else I should check first?

On the Tekken 2, we would suggest unplugging your board, turning on the cabinet and see if the monitor shuts off without the board hooked up. Try turning the brightness and contrast up so that your monitor has a white screen. This should allow you to easily identify if the monitor goes off. If your monitor goes off then you are definitely having a monitor issue. Try a cap kit on the monitor chassis if the monitor is faulty. Otherwise you might start looking at the board, power supply or wiring for your problem.

On the Space Invaders, the weird objects that you are seeing on your screen are caused by board issues. Check out Alex Yeckley’s page at http://www.elektronforge.com/. Alex specializes in Space Invaders boards. He has some information on his site that might help you out with your issue. He will also repair your board if you cannot figure it out on your own.

We have also featured your question on episode 5 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your issues. Thank you for your questions and keep us updated on your repairs.

First off, we would really like to see some pictures of your monitor screen and chassis as this would help us troubleshoot this issue better. That being said, it definitely sounds like you are having a monitor issue. The cause of your issue could be cold solder joints. You might try reflowing the solder to see if it helps your issues at all. We would also recommend a cap kit as this could be caused by a faulty cap. Please see our post on Installing A Cap Kit for more information. If your monitor is a Wells Gardner monitor, you can try calling them directly. Check out there website at http://www.wellsgardner.com for their contact information.

We have also featured your question on episode 5 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on this issue. Thank you for your questions and good luck with your repair.

We typically recommend turning off your machines when you are not using them. If you do turn them on, however, we would let them run for a bit before turning them off. The start up can be pretty hard on an arcade game and leaving it running for a bit before turning them off can help. Also, moving games can cause issues so try to avoid this when possible. Screen burn should not be an issue with the attract mode going on your board.

As far as the high scores go, some arcade games hold high scores and some don’t. If the original game on the 60-In-1 board supported high score saves then it should work on the 60-In-1 board and vice-versa. There might also be some test mode settings you can adjust to get this to work as well. Check your 60-In-1 board manual for more information on the test mode.

We have also featured your question on episode 5 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your questions. Thank you for your questions and enjoy playing your cocktail cabinet.

Donnie BrockmanFebruary 14, 2010

Hello –
Great web site.
Not sure if you can help.
I have a Cherry Master, I bought it broke and realized that an eprom was not in correct. When I got it home, I pulled the eprom and then put back in. It fired up and worked for about a month.
Now – since it stopped again, the monitor is black, when it powers on, The bill collector will sound off but nothing else happens. I do notice that sometimes when I click the reset on the mother board that some of the buttons will flash. I have to turn off to stop the flashing. I first thought that my monitor had gone bad but I would think that all else would sound and play if that was the issue.

Any advise would be appreciated.

Donnie

BrianFebruary 19, 2010

Hello,

I bought a centipede game a few years ago. The screen now is blue when I turn it on and nothing else happens. Any idea what this means? Thanks!!

BrianFebruary 19, 2010

(continued)… Here are more details: the centipede game is an original stand up coin operated game. It is kept in my basement where the dehumidifier runs off and on all year. It worked good for about a year, the only thing weird before it’s world went blue was random letters would show up on the screen. This is my first stand up arcade game and am clueless as how the insides work. I do have a manual. My son is now old enough that he wants to play it, so I figured I should get it fixed. Thanks again!

Before sending your San Francisco Rush monitor off for repair you might try seeing adjusting the focus after the monitor warms up helps the fuzzy/blurry image that you are getting. Please see our post on Adjusting An Arcade Monitor for more information. Also, you might try taking your tube to a TV repair man to see if he can test it for you. If this problem is being caused by a bad tube he should be able to tell.

We have also featured your question on episode 6 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and good luck repairing your San Francisco Rush.

AdamFebruary 28, 2010

Hello, I have a Midway Pigskin 621 game that I cannot get the monitor to stop scrolling vertically on. I have replaced the main board,the power supply and tried to adjust the v-hold with no help. I can almost get it to hold but it either scrolls up or down. The game works great other than this! Any help?

AdamFebruary 28, 2010

My Pigskin game also looks to have a Vision Pro by Happ Controls 49-1329-VP2 monito installed

HoffmanMarch 8, 2010

Guys,

i have a Nanao MS-2931 tri-res monitor that shows no picture.

the monitor powers on and i see glow coming from neck. If i feed the chassis a 31khz signal through the db15 connector i hear the monitor click as it changes resolution, remove the feed, it clicks again. So the monitor is responsive to power/input but still no picture whatsoever.

please give me some tips to help troubleshoot problem as im a complete newbie to this. i do have a multimeter on hand and im great with soldering. thanks! keep the videos coming

Sounds like you are having some board issues. You could try physically inspecting the board to see if there are any chips that need to be resocketed. If you are comfortable around a soldering iron, you could also try reflowing the solder on the board. If you continue to have problems after that, we would recommend either sending it off for repair or getting another board altogether. If you are interested in getting your board repair, please let us know and we’ll try to help you out with that.

We have also featured your question on episode 7 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and keep us updated on your status.

This sounds like it could be a related to a couple of different areas. We would probably start off by replacing the vertical hold potentiometer on your monitor chassis. We had a similar problem with a Super Mario Bros and it turned out to be a bad potentiometer. Replacing a potentiometer is pretty much the same process as replacing a capacitor and is a good starting place for this problem. If that doesn’t work you might want to check the sync wires going to your monitor chassis from your board. If these wires are not making a good connection it can also cause problems such as this.

We have also featured your question on episode 7 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and please keep us updated on the status of this issue.

We had a very similar problem with a Tokyo Cop that had a Nanao monitor in it. Our problem turned out to be the filter capacitor that was located right in the middle of the chassis. You might check this cap before moving on to other troubleshooting. Of course, we always recommend doing a full cap kit if this monitor is older and hasn’t had one in a while. Please see our post on Installing A Cap Kit for more information. If you install the cap kit and you are still having problems, then your flyback is probably the culprit.

We have also featured your question on episode 7 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and please keep us updated on your status with this issue.

While we are not too familiar with Cherry Master games in particular, they are pretty similar to a regular arcade game. This really sounds like a problem with your board. You could try reflowing the solder on the board especially around that eprom chip you were having the problems with. You might also check to make sure that the harness is making a good connection with the board. The good news is that Cherry Master boards are usually pretty reasonable on eBay. Please let us know if you continue to have issues and if we can assist you further.

We have also featured your question on episode 7 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and good luck with your repair.

John WMarch 29, 2010

I have a Roadblasters Arcade Game that has a 19″ Wells Gardner, I think its a K7000 series. The monitor turns on fine and then shuts off after a couple seconds. After turning it on and off many times, it will stay on just fine. I checked the B+ voltage and it is reading 170 VDC – 180 VDC. The large capacitor is bulged on top and the flyback casing on the board looks as though it has started leaking. What do I need to replace? Thanks a lot! -John

AaronMarch 29, 2010

I have a NEO GEO I picked up with a dead WG7000. I replaced the Power and bought a full Bob Roberts Rebuld kit. Relaced all Caps and flyback including the 31130 and 1398. (not sure what the are but I replaced them anyway) I an kind of new to monitor repair and not very good with a multi-meter yet but I did check the 4 Diodes in the power section as shown in your video and no beeps on any so seems to be good? I check some of the (gray diodes?)the same way and R90, r98 do give me a tone. Are these bad. Anyways still no glow on the tube neck and I seem to be the same place as I started. Thanks Aaron

RobMarch 31, 2010

Hey guys.

Just a quick question for you. Less than a month ago, I purchased a Midway arcade machine (NFL Blitz 2000 Gold Edition) from an auction in Toronto, Canada.

Anyways, the machine is working fine for now. However, if I turn it off, when I turn it back on, I have to reset all of my preferences (ie. game audio, game difficulty, the “free play” option) and I lose all of my high scores and my standings for season mode.

Having said that, I’m OK with leaving the machine on all the time, but I’m wondering if doing so will cause its components to wear out sooner. The on/off switch at the top seems pretty delicate and I’m afraid that turning it on and off regularly will eventually burn out the monitor (just like a light bulb will eventually burn out if you flip the light switch too often).

Let me know which option is better for making the machine last longer and also whether there is a way to save my options even when I do turn it off. Maybe I just haven’t figured it out yet.

Thanks.

KurtApril 7, 2010

Hi

I have a 20″ samsung picture tube running on a Kortek KT-20 monitor chassis. The chassis seems to be ok, but I can see high voltage arcing around the yoke. Have you seen this before, do I need a new picture tube? Can I use a TV CRT in it’s place and just plug my existing yoke board to it?

Thanks

Darrell MarcumApril 27, 2010

Hi,
I did a stupid thing… I have a SME-FDL5 (Tandberg) monitor in my cab. I was connecting the speaker wires from the cab to the monitor and I let a speaker wire fall. It draped along the metal shroud on the neck board and now I get no picture. Also, connected to the metal shroud are wires coming from the degaussing coils. I hear small a squeal coming from the speaker amp area and on the ir board, the power led reamins lit but I cannot power it up. Normally when I press the power button I hear the “dong” from the degaussing at startup but now I get nothing…

We definitely recommend replacing that bulging capacitor and the leaking flyback. While you’re working on your chassis, it’s probably be a good time to replace some of the other parts as well. Bob Roberts sells WG K7000 Series Repair Kit that contains the flyback, HOT, fuse and cap kit for a very reasonable price. You can find out more information about this kit at http://www.therealbobroberts.net/parts.html#flyback. Try installing this kit on your chassis and let us know how it turns out.

We have also featured your question on episode 10 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and good luck with your repair.

Sounds like you have replaced most of the parts that we recommend replacing. This really narrows the problem down to the power supply section of your chassis. Of course, make sure that you are getting power into the monitor from the isolation transformer or power supply. If you are getting power then look on the chassis where the power come in. See if you can identify any problems around this section. We would also like to see some pictures of your chassis so that we might help you troubleshoot this further.

We have also featured your question on episode 10 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and good luck with your repair.

NFL Blitz boards usually have a battery on the board that it uses to save your settings. It sounds like this battery is bad and needs to be replaced. This battery is usually located in the middle of the board. We recommend removing this battery and taking it to your local electronics store to see if they have a replacement. After your replace this battery it should save your settings.

As far as leaving your arcade machines on goes, we tend to lean towards turning them off when you’re not using them. As you said, the components are only made to last so long and when you have power going to them you are taking away from their life expectancy. Turning your game off will also save on your electric bill which is always a good thing with summer coming up.

We have also featured your question on episode 10 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and keep us updated on your repair.

First off, we are not big fans of the Kortek monitors as we have had problems in the past with their reliability. That being said, however, it does sound like you need a new tube. There is a really good article on 8liners.com that talks about using different tubes with different monitor chassis. You can find the article at http://www.8liners.com/datatech/monitor.html. Please check out this article for more details on replacing tubes. We are also curious as to what arcade game this monitor is in. Give us a shout back and let us know.

We have also featured your question on episode 10 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and good luck with your repair.

RobertApril 30, 2010

Hey guys,

To make a long story short, I purchased an NBA Jam arcade today and had to use a friends truck to move it. The machine was covered with a tarp, however during the move it began to rain and some water managed to get inside.

Upon arrival to my house, I opened the back and didn’t see any water at first glance. So…we fired it on and it played flawlessly for about 3-4 minutes, then the screen went black. Music and sounds still worked perfect, just no picture.

Could the water have cause a short in the wiring? How long should I leave the machine unplugged before trying to turn it on again?

First off, don’t feel too bad as we’ve definitely done stupid things very similar to this. These things can happen to anyone so hopefully you’re not being too hard on yourself. With that being said, this could be many things. We’re going to start at the power supply and make sure that we are getting power to the monitor. This is to make sure we didn’t blow it up when the wires touched the tube. If the power supply is good then we would try and locate the fuse on the chassis to see if it is blown. Then we would move to the flyback and Horizontal Output Transistor (or HOT). Check both of these to see if they are good and replace as needed. If you get this far and it still won’t come on please contact us again and give us the details of the steps you have taken to this point.

We have also featured your question on episode 11 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and keep us updated on your progress.

Yes, this problem could have been caused by your cabinet getting wet. It sounds like your monitor has gone out which could have been caused by a number of things. If this problem was caused by the cabinet getting wet then you might be in luck. We recommend checking the fuses around both your power supply at the bottom of your cabinet and your monitor chassis. Please see our post on Checking Fuses With A Multimeter for more information. Also, make sure that there is power going up to the monitor. It could be that the power wires going to your monitor came loose during the move.

If all of your fuses are good and you seem to be getting power up to your monitor then we need to take a closer look at your monitor chassis. The symptoms you are experiencing could be caused by a bad HOT (or Horizontal Output Transistor) or a bad flyback. Worse case scenario would involve replacing the majority of parts on your monitor chassis or getting a new one altogether.

We have also featured your question on episode 12 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and good luck with your repair.

BillyJune 14, 2010

Hello,

I currenty just brought home a Donkey Kong Jr. Machine. I was told that there was something wrong with it when I purchased it. When I turn it on, there is a thin white line on the monitor. I can hear nosies for game play and all..just can’t see what it is going on. The third knob in the pic seems loose. Any ideas? Thank you for your help.

Hello! I am working on my first machine, I am new to most repairs,I bought a Virtual Fighter Machine, Everything works except I can not brighten the screen i can see an image at max brightness it seems , From what it looks like you suggest replacing the caps. any ideas i suppose? (Sorry for being so brief!) Oh and thank god for your warning on the discharge on the monitor.

You definitely need to get a pot for your brightness adjustment as this can cause a lot of crazy issues. You can buy a pot from Bob Roberts (http://www.therealbobroberts.net/pots.html). While you’re replacing that pot, it would be a good idea to do a cap kit and refresh the solder around the vertical and horizontal IC chips on your chassis. The horizontal collapse that you are describing is going to be related to one of these parts. You should be able to get a cap kit for the Sanyo EZ monitor that’s in your cabinet from Bob Roberts as well. Take your time and keep us updated on your progress.

We have also featured your question on episode 13 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and good luck with your future repairs.

Make sure that you are adjusting all of the pots brightness and not just one. There are typically three pots that control what most people consider brightness on a monitor. There should be two pots on the chassis or on a remote board that are called brightness and contrast. Make sure that you are adjusting both of these and not just one. The other pot for brightness is located on the flyback which is what the anode (or suction cup looking thing that attaches to the tube) is connected to. You will probably find two pots when you look at your flyback. The other pot is for focus so it should be pretty easy to tell which pot does what just by adjusting them a bit. Play with these three pots and see if you can get your desired picture. If you still can not get it to look the way you want it to then you should probably look into a cap kit at that point.

We have also featured your question on episode 13 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and good luck with your future repairs.

JoshAugust 3, 2010

I have a cherry master monitor that squeals like a whining when I turn it on..I flip the power a few times and kinda quiets down and the monitor comes on. The picture is very nice just the noise is driving me NUTS..Any suggestions..Thanks

Aaron WeldonAugust 4, 2010

I just recently got a Street Fighter 3 Arcade. The monitor only displays one thin line (horizontal) in the middle of the screen. It seems to be updating, so it is playing different images. Any idea how I can fix this?

SteveAugust 14, 2010

I just did a cap kit on a WG 7xxx monitor that had a wavy black vertical line running up teh left side of the monitor. The cap kit fixed that problem but placed a horizontal lighter section across the top 2inches or so of the screen. Everything is still visible in that light area, it is just lighter than the rest of the image. Any thoughts?

Sounds like the flyback on your monitor could be going out. You might look at it to see if you can find any cracks or holes in the casing. If you find some visible problems with your flyback then you’ll need to replace it. You will need to know what kind of monitor it is before you can replace it. Check out the What’s My Monitor page on Bob Roberts site to help you identify the brand and model of the monitor you have. You should also be able to buy the replacement flyback from his site as well.

We have also featured your question on episode 15 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and keep us updated on your progress.

A thin horizontal line is usually indicative of a problem with the vertical section of your monitor chassis. More than likely one of the solder joints somewhere in this section is cold or broken. You should probably take out your monitor chassis and check all of the solder points to make sure that everything is making a good connection. You especially want to check around the chips on the board to make sure that all of the pins are soldered correctly. Check our our post on More Troubleshooting Monitors With Michael for more information.

We have also featured your question on episode 15 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and keep us updated on your progress.

Robert McCormickAugust 23, 2010

I have a monitor for Zombie Raid that stays on for about 10 minutes then goes blank. It does not power down at all and the voltage stays the same going into it, it just goes black.

If I turn the machine off, let it fully power down, and then back on, it will work again for a while, but less than before. If I let it sit over night it will work again for another 10 minutes.

It could be that one of the caps that you used to install the cap kit was bad or that you accidentally installed an incorrect cap somewhere. We would recommend going back over the cap map you got with your cap kit and double checking the voltages, polarities and microfarad of each cap to make sure that everything is correct. This problem definitely still sounds like a cap issue and can probably be fixed with just a closer look at your chassis.

We have also featured your question on episode 15 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and keep us updated on your progress.

Thanks for such an awesome site and vid-tutorials! I have just bought an old Neo Geo cab. When I turn it on the monitor is wavy (rapid) for about 5 mins before gradually coming right. Also intermittent pop/buzz noise coming from the front of the tube where it attaches to the cab. Is the tube dying? Or would a cap kit remedy this? Thanks again!

Hi again. I’ve figured out that my monitor is A Kortek 26″ (found schematic online with parts list). No cap kits exist for this monitor so I’ve decided to order the caps separately from a local supplier. The parts list doesn’t indicate whether the capacitor voltage is AC or DC. Can you please give me some help with this? Thanks again!

Nathan BorerSeptember 12, 2010

Hi, I bought a Police Trainer arcade game locally. The guy I bought it from said that it worked fine about a year ago when they moved it into their shed. When they tried to recently turn it on, it wouldn’t fully turn on.

When I power the machine up, the monitor turns on. The only thing on the monitor is that the whole screen is a grayish color. No lines or anything. There is no sound coming from the speakers either. It has a JAMMA PCB. I’m at a loss of where to even start. I checked the wiring and it all looks good. Power is obviously getting to the monitor. Please help. Thanks.

This issue sounds like a cap in the power supply section of your monitor. We would recommend doing a cap kit to see if this solves the problem. If the problem continues after the cap kit then we can start looking at the HOT or flyback as these could be causing some issues as well.

We have also featured your question on episode 16 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and keep us updated on your progress.

ScottSeptember 17, 2010

I’ve got a Centipede game with a side scroll issue. I’ve worked with the sync knobs and have gotten it to slow down, but with the knob turned all the way I still have a very slow side scroll. Everything else is good. Proper color, proper contrast, good focus, no vertical scroll, no image distortion, just a slight hortizontal scroll to the right. What is the next thing I should check?

Sounds like your monitor might be having either some sync or b+ voltage issues. The good news is that it sounds like your tube is fine. A cap kit could possibly solve this issue and is definitely our recommended place to start. Please let us know what your status is on this after the cap kit is complete.

We have also featured your question on episode 16 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and keep us updated on your progress.

Mark TSeptember 21, 2010

I have a Donkey Kong 3, the game works fine at times then just stops and screen goes white. I turn it off and sometimes it comes right back on sometimes it does not. When I have the white screen I do hear a hum then graphics may pop on may not. When it does work everything works fine including sound and graphics

The caps that we use most of the time in arcade repair are going to be DC. If you’re having problems finding a cap kit for your Kortek monitor, you might try Happ at http://www.happ.com. Happ usually lists cap kits as repair kits so you might need to do a search for that instead. Of course, you can always do what you’re doing and just order the caps individually from another source. You might compare your local supplier to Mouser and DigiKey to see how they compare price wise if you want to save some money.

We have also featured your question on episode 17 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and keep us updated on your progress.

It sounds like you might be having a problem with your potentiometer. We would recommend refreshing the solder around the legs of this pot to see if it solves the problem. If the problem continues after this point then you might just need to replace the pot altogether. If you need help finding the correct pot to order let us know and we’ll help you out.

We have also featured your question on episode 17 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and keep us updated on your progress.

Even though power is getting to the monitor, that does not tell us whether power is getting to the board. Your monitor and marquee light usually run off of AC power while your board runs off of DC power running to it from the power supply. We recommend checking the power supply to see if the correct voltages are getting to your board. Please check out our post on Checking And Replacing A Power Supply for more information on how to do that.

We have also featured your question on episode 17 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and keep us updated on your progress.

RobertOctober 2, 2010

I have a Showtime/Bitz arcade. the screen starts to blur as I play. Starts off fairly sharp then gets blurry as the game goes on. any suggestions? or is there an adjustment for clarity that I can locate?

Sounds like you have a short in your wiring between your monitor and Donkey Kong 3 board. Make sure you check these wires and the pins where the monitor connects to your chassis to make sure that a good connection is being made. You might need to completely replace the connector on these wires to get it to work. It could be your flyback but usually when they go bad you get nothing on the screen. You could also check your power supply to make sure you are getting the correct power to the board. Make sure you check it at the power supply and at your harness to the board. This should ensure that your board is getting the proper voltage.

We have also featured your question on episode 18 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and keep us updated on your progress.

There is a potentiometer for focus that you can adjust on the flyback. Please see our post on Adjusting An Arcade Monitor for more information. The way you are describing the problem, however, sounds like you might have to replace your flyback soon. Our Volume 2 DVD contains a video on Checking And Replacing The Flyback if you are not familiar with the process. You can purchase this DVD from our online store.

We have also featured your question on episode 18 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and keep us updated on your progress.

CharlieOctober 24, 2010

Hiya,

First off – Fantastic videos… It’s great to see a site like this which answers many of the questions us arcade machine owners need answering!

Right, hopefully you can help me as I assume this is a common problem. I have recently purchased a standard Jamma cab (come with Super Street Fighter II). I was taking out the speakler/marquee light wooden panel when it slipped out of my hand and fell on the joystick panel. The screen had a burning effect close to where the panel dropped, but I left it powered off for abour 20 mins and when I turned it on, the screen had pretty much gone back to normal (Only a very slight discolour – I assume degaussing will solve this, as there doesn’t appear to be any damage to anything. Including the monitor itself, as it’s covered with the glass panel).

The monitor is working okay, but doesn’t have a very sharp picture to it. It’s definatly playable, and the lower centre part of the screen seems a lot crisper than the rest of the screen. Would degaussing the monitor solve this? (As well as sorting the very slight colour problem that’s left). The monitor has had the slight blurring since I have purchased it a couple of days ago.

Hopefully you can point me in the right direction – I had some boards left over from a clearout, and decided to treat myself to a cab instead of selling them off. I’m once again hooked on SSFII!

Thanks,
Charlie

Peter EdgeOctober 27, 2010

hey, ive got a taito space invaders machine part ll (cocktail). I have no idea a screen about fixing arcade machines and my screen has suddenly broken. When i turn the machine on all i get on the screen is blocks of colour. I have no idea what the problem is with the monitor and how to fix it. I would be very grateful for any help
Cheers Peter

MylesNovember 7, 2010

Hi, I have a problem I hope you can help with. I recently picked up a Nintendo Playchoice 10 cabinet that has some issue with the monitor board I suspect. There are two fuses on the board, one on the tube power or higher voltage side, and the other 3A fuse that seems to be for the audio/video circuts. This fuse will blow instantly when I turn on the machine, but the one for the tube power doesn’t blow. In fact, you can hear the tube humming away as normal. The led on game board also power on,and game timer operates. I cannot get sound or picture though, as they are contained in the circuit that keeps blowing the fuse.I imagine that this is caused by some short somewhere, but don’t see anything burned,grounding out or otherwise suspect with the board. How do I go about tracking down where the short or bad component is? The guy I got it from said it worked fine until he moved it, so I would guess that it’s not a major thing to fix, I just don’t know how to pinpoint it.

JoeNovember 15, 2010

Hey!

I’ve a Hantarex MTC 900 (NOT 900E) that has a weird issue. The focus keeps changing with what’s being displayed. The less there is on the screen, the more blurry it gets. The flyback on this is the older type with the focus and screen pots mounted on the neckboard.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Brad KrapffNovember 17, 2010

Hi there,

Very cool website, I was looking at a Donkey Kong Jr. but when you turn it on the flips back & forth Between upside down and Right side up … I think it resets the game too as you can not get it to hold credit and restarts the the game if you try to start it. any ideas.

Thanks in advance for any input.
Brad

JJNovember 20, 2010

Hi there, I have an original Williams Defender. All working fine until recently. It keeps looping Vertically. I have tried adjusting the vertical hold, but to no avail. Do you know what this problem is? Thanks JJ in the UK

TimNovember 27, 2010

I have a Mario Bros. game where the monitor has color (mostly red) that “smears” to the right. Any red area is usually smeared about 1/2″ to 1″ to the right. Cap kit? Adjustment on monitor? Thanks

You would assume right. When the magnetic field on the speakers comes in contact with a monitor it can cause this type of discoloration. This should be easily removed with a degaussing coil. As for the focus issue, the degaussing coil might affect it somewhat but you probably need to adjust the focus potentiometer on your monitor chassis. Please see our post on Adjusting An Arcade Monitor for more information.

We have also featured your question on episode 20 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and good luck with your future repairs.

What you are experiencing actually sounds more like a board or power issue. We would suggest checking the power supply to start with. Space Invaders Part II has a separate power supply board with a connector that goes to the main board. Read your manual to find out which wires should be what voltages and then use your multimeter to check them accordingly. The power supply board should also have some voltage adjustment potentiometers that will allow you to correct the voltage if it is too high or too low. If you do all of this adjustment and the game continues to have these blocks of color then you might try disconnected the main harness, cleaning the connector edges with a pencil eraser and reconnecting it.

We have also featured your question on episode 20 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and please keep us updated on your repair.

Tracing down shorts is not an easy task. The best thing to do is to make sure that you have several of these fuses so that you can play around with different configurations. Try unplugging different parts to see if the fuse blows. If you think the problem is in the monitor board, try unplugging the monitor board from the game and powering it up. If the fuse does not blow then that will give you a good indication that something is wrong in that area. Once you have it narrowed down to a particular part, you can begin looking for shorts, loose solder joints, etc.

We have also featured your question on episode 20 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and please keep us updated on your repair.

This sounds more like either a bad flyback or an older tube issue. We would tend to lean towards bad flyback as tubes rarely ever go bad. You might try replacing the flyback first to see if you get different results. If that doesn’t work, you might try rejuvenating the tube or getting a new one altogether. While a long shot, it could also be that the potentiometer for the focus is going bad. You could try replacing it to see if that solves your issue as well.

We have also featured your question on episode 20 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and please keep us updated on your repair.

There’s a good article on MikesArcade.com on Nintendo Video Inversion By Joel Rosenzweig. This article contains lots of good information about the issue you are facing. If you have any questions after reading it, please let us know and we’ll help you out.

We have also featured your question on episode 20 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and please keep us updated on your repair.

We would recommend checking the sync wires going from the board to the monitor as continuous vertical scrolling can be a sign of the sync wires not making a good connection. Otherwise, your vertical hold potentiometer might be going bad. We would recommend replacing it to see if the issue continues.

We have also featured your question on episode 20 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and please keep us updated on your repair.

John lichtenbergDecember 19, 2010

Sorry for irrelevant question – but my wife is ready to beat me – do u know how to turn off attract mode for a full size donkey kong/donkey kong junior arcade game? Got it free from a friend but can’t seem to find how to adjust settings

Hey Guys – Thanks for all the great advice on this site. I’ve made use of quite a bit of it. Anyway, I have a problem I can’t seem to solve. I have a Centipede cocktail. The monitor is bright and reliable. However, lately I’ve noticed that images at the left side of the screen appear slightly stretch while the images on the right side of the screen seem squeezed. Basically, as you move across the screen the images gradually compress. I can still see everything just fine but it’s still one of those things that is annoying when you play the game and know its there. Thanks for the help! Happy Holidays.

matt

DavidJanuary 2, 2011

Hi Guys

I was wondering if you could help me with m monitor issue.
I have a midway killer instinct 2 machine which after about 10 minutes of play the monitor seems to switch off.
I watched to see what would happen from the back of the monitor and saw that the orange glow was strong at first then got dimmer and dimmer until no glow at all and monitor off.
Any advice would be greatly apreciated.

Andy RavenJanuary 8, 2011

Hi, I have a problem with an ancient Toei GM-20 B&W monitor as found in Taito space invaders upright. The problem I have is that it has vertical white lines (increasing in number as you change the Verticle width on the monitor). You can faintly see the game image on the screen, only faintly because the raster background image is of roughly the same white intensity. If you turn up the brightness, the background “raster” increases the same amount as the game image, so it makes no difference, the same happens if you turn the brightness down, the raster goes black, and so does the game image.
I have tested all fuses and the main voltage, the isolation transformer knocks it from 100v down to 34VAC, checked the bridge rectifier and output transistor, all fine.
I have even hooked up an oscilloscope to check out the game video output, which is fine.
I will install a cap kit, but want to wait a few weeks to ensure all high voltages are gone, but the board looks fine physically, no burn marks, cracks etc..
Many thanks for any assistance you can provide.
Cheers

dbiz1January 10, 2011

My Monitor is doing the wave when it comes on and does not go away, do i need to get a new one? 19inch.

MattyJanuary 16, 2011

Hi, I’m having troubles with my monitor colors after having turned the screen from vert to hoz. Before the flip the colors were perfect and now when I try to adjust the color pots the red pot now controls the green, the green pot controls the blue and the blue pot controls the red. There haven’t been any changes to the cabinet wiring and it has me stumped.

It sounds like you need to do some adjustments on your arcade monitor. We would recommend adjusting the red cutoff and red drive potentiometers specifically. Check out our post on Adjusting An Arcade Monitor for more information. With that said, if you do not have any success with the adjustments then you may need to replace those potentiometers or perhaps install a cap at that point.

We have also featured your question on episode 21 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and good luck with your repair.

Your issue sounds like it’s going to require some chassis repair. You could try doing some adjustments to see if you can make the issue better but it probably won’t help much. We recommend getting a horizontal width kit and a new horizontal width coil from Bob Roberts and installing them on your chassis. Bob Roberts has a nice post on horizontal width kits that you might check out. You will also need to know what kind of monitor you have so you get the right parts. Check out the What’s My Monitor page on Bob Roberts site for help with determining that.

We have also featured your question on episode 21 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and keep us updated on your progress.

It sounds like your monitor is losing voltage. Try testing the isolation transformer to see if it is still putting out power once the monitor goes out. You could also try replacing some of the capacitors in the power supply section of your monitor chassis (around where the power wires come in). It could be that some of these caps are bad and are restricting the flow of electricity as the game stays on.

We have also featured your question on episode 21 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and please keep us updated on your repair.

You are definitely on the right track. This sounds like it very well could be related to some bad capacitors on the monitor chassis. Great job troubleshooting! Let us know how the cap kit goes.

We have also featured your question on episode 21 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and please keep us updated on your repair.

JoeFebruary 2, 2011

Hi I have a billabs bl25c90t I purchased new about a 18 months ago and I just moved it from an older cabinet to a new one I just finished restoring. When removing the monitor I didn’t notice the wiring harness for the adjustment board had got caught on something and pulled some of the connectors off of the chassis. When I powered the monitor up it made a few loud sounds and now all it will do is click but no picture. The fuse on the chassis is still good but it appears that nothing is going to the tube. I plugged the two connectors that came off the chassis back in but all it will do is click when powered on.

Most of the time these types of wave issues are very repairable but it depends on what type of monitor you have. For instance, a lot of people experience this type of trouble with their 19″ Electrohome G07 monitors. This problem is usually referred to as the hula effect and can be fixed pretty easily. Check out this G07 flowchart for more information on the hula effect: http://www.rotheblog.com/images/arcade/misc/flowcharts/g07_flowchart.pdf.

The best place to start is to identify your monitor. You can do this by taking a look at your chassis and comparing it to the chassis pictures from the What’s My Monitor on Bob Roberts site. Once you have identified your chassis, you can then move forward with troubleshooting it.

We have also featured your question on episode 22 of our Q&A podcast which should be posted on our website soon. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and please let us know if you have any other questions in the future.

JasonFebruary 22, 2011

I have an original upright Pac-Man. The screen has started moving to the right very quickly…definitely a hold problem. I looked inside the cabinet but I can’t seem to locate the vertical/horizontal controls. I know they must be there but I can’t find the darn things. I found two nobs that control the contrast and sharpness as well as the RGB adjustments but the holds are evading me. HELP!!!

Thanks in advance.

ConnorFebruary 24, 2011

Hello there, I’m working on an arcade machine that will be sold at a school auction and I have just a few minor questiosn about my monitor. It’s a brand-new Imperial Kortek 19″ from Arcadeshop.com. It works, but it has one little imperfection. There are some very faint vertical lines that can be seen. These lines are thin and they makes the area they are in a little more washed out than everything else. also they seem to move with the sprites of the game. It’s for one of thoese 60-in-1 arcades and the lines weren’t always visible. On Mrs. Pacman you could see them but on some other games like galaga they seem to be non-existant. Keep in mind that thsi monitor is new and it was the first time I had turned it on and I don’t think it was on for mroe than 15 minutes before I unpluged it and put it away for strage until it’s needed. Also It was in a woodshop when I turned it on. (I doubt that makes any difference, but I’ll mention it anyway.) I only tweaked the potentiometers that were on the external control board, I have yet to touch anything on the actual criciut board or the 2 dials on the flyback I believe it is called. Other than those faint lines, the monitor has absolutely no other issues. I hope you can help me with what the problem is, as I don’t think its anything serious.

This is a very strange problem indeed. It almost seems like the monitor is somehow remapping the colors on it’s own. You might try degaussing the monitor to see if it helps. Check out our post on Using A Degaussing Coil for more information. Also, just a couple of questions that will help us troubleshoot your issue. Have you tried rotating the monitor back? Do the colors correct themselves once you’ve done this?

We have also featured your question on episode 22 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and good luck with your repair.

First off, we’re always going to recommend that you go with a CRT (or tube) monitor over a LCD monitor especially on classic games such as your Missile Command. With that said, you can do this pretty easily. You might need to get a conversion board depending on the type of LCD monitor you plan on using. You can get these from Happ Controls or JammaBoards.com. We will tell you that many places (such as Alva Amusement) are selling CRT monitors pretty cheap right now. You might try contacting some places to see what the cost difference is going to be between the two.

We have also featured your question on episode 22 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and good luck with your repair.

The clicking that you are hearing could be a couple of things. If the clicking is coming from the tube where the anode (suction cop) attaches then you’ll probably need to replace your flyback. If the clicking is coming from somewhere else on your chassis then it could be a capacitor or another part. You definitely want to make sure that you touch up the solder to the pins where the connectors were connected. It could be that when the connectors came off that the pins pulled away from the board causing some connection issue. We’re not really familiar with these Billabs monitors. If you continue to have issues send us some pictures of your chassis and we’ll try to help you more.

We have also featured your question on episode 22 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and keep us updated on your progress.

GusMarch 2, 2011

hello,

I have an all origianl Donkey Kong upright arcade 2 board version. I get no sound or image when I turn it on. I replaced the power supply and the correct voltage is being outputted to both boards. The monitor turns on and has a white screen. What is my problem?

Thanks

jeffMarch 8, 2011

Hi I just bought a track and field game and it worked great at the persons house I drove home two hours later I plugged it in and all it does is hum thru the speaker No pictur ,no sound nothing but the humming (any ideas

DougMarch 12, 2011

I recently just acquired a fully cabinet with a G07 monitor. Today when I fired it up, I noticed a blue arc near the wire going through the suction cup and now only a hissing from that area. The screen is showing now lots of 0′s and few other different numbers and letters mixed in. Color and clarity is still good though. Any ideas?

There could be a number of things that are causing you some issues. It could be that someone broke off the hold potentiometers. In this case, you will need to locate where they were, get replacement pots and solder them in. It could also be that these particular pots are not the standard pots you’re used to. In our video on Adjusting Potentiometers Without A Knob, we go over how to adjust potentiometers that require a screwdriver to adjust. If you’re still having issues, please let us know so we can help you troubleshoot your issue further.

We have also featured your question on episode 23 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and keep us updated on your progress.

A lot of times lines like this are caused by the monitor being improperly grounded or not grounded at all. Make sure that you have your monitor chassis properly grounded in your arcade cabinet. If the problem continues after grounding your monitor then you may have a compatibility issue. According to Tim, there are some known issues with Kortek monitors and the initial run of 60-in-1 boards. He says if you get the 60-in-1 rev B board or you use a different monitor it should solve the problem. Please let us know if you have any other questions about this issue.

We have also featured your question on episode 23 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and keep us updated on your progress.

What you are describing sounds exactly like the board is not getting power. We would recommend checking the voltage not only at your power supply but also at your harness. Make sure that the voltage is close to what it should be reading at both places. You can also check out our post on Working With Nintendo Arcade Games for information about dealing with the 100 VAC that Nintendo cabinets use. If you are sure that your power supply is correct, you might have unplugged the wires coming from the board to the monitor by mistake. Make sure that these wires are correctly connected.

We have also featured your question on episode 23 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and keep us updated on your progress.

andrew makMarch 21, 2011

I have an Area 51 thats working fine other than the gun wont shoot at the very bottom of the screen. I did a gun test and sighted the guns in and they shoot right on everywhere else exept about the bottom 3 inches of the screen. When you shoot the bottom of the screen it just reloads the gun. And while in the menu I cant get the gun to shoot at the bottom choices in the test menu. I have a Virtua Cop that is doing the exact same thing too. They were working fine and then they were turned off and in my garage very cold all winter and now doing this. What should I do? Thanks for your time.

andrew makMarch 23, 2011

Sorry for the multiple posts. My area 51 seems to be working fine now. I think it just needed to warm up. But the VIRTUA COP isnt working at all. When I shoot the gun it flashes but doesnt fire the shot, and when Im in the gun test I cant shoot the target to sight the gun in. It flashes when I pull the trigger but doesnt fire. Any help is appreciated.

MattMarch 27, 2011

We just recently purchased a 1980 Centipede game. You can hear the game operating, however there is nothing on the sceen. Does the 19′ television just need to be replaced?

RandyApril 11, 2011

I just bought a pacman cocktail table…powers up and there is sound but the monitor is black.
last light there was a faint orange glow.
it has a electrohome monitor in it.
Worth replacing it?
could it be the transformer? (there are 2 in it….1 bigger than the other….)
left side of chassis is warm….does that mean there is power going to it?
also….I only see 1 fuse on the monitor board….seems to be soldiered in or something.

JonathanApril 16, 2011

I have recently purchased a Konami Dark Silhouette Silent Scope 2 arcade that is in excellent shape, minus the main screen not working. From my understanding and research there are two video cards for this machine, one operates the main screen and the other operates the small screen for the scope. That being said the scope screen works fine, as does the game in general minus the main not working. I haven’t taken the case apart yet to start testing as I’m out of town but I was curious if you had heard of anything like this. Also I have never had an arcade as advanced as this one…my other is an original Galaga machine(sub 2000 serial number).

This sounds like your board is either not getting power or came unplugged from the harness during transport. We would start off by opening the back of the cabinet and making sure your board is plugged up. We would follow that up by checking the power supply to make sure power is getting to the board. Check out our posts on Checking And Replacing A Power Supply and Checking A Classic Power Supply for more information.

We have also featured your question on episode 24 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and good luck with your future repairs.

Sounds like the flyback on your monitor chassis is having some trouble. While there are some things that you can do to repair the flyback, we would recommend just replacing it all together. Check out the parts page on Bob Roberts’s site to get a replacement flyback. If you need help with the replacement, we do have a video on our Volume 2 DVD that shows how to replace the flyback. You can get a copy of our Volume 2 DVD from our online store.

We have also featured your question on episode 24 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and good luck with your repair.

Your Virtua Cop gun issues could be a problem with the io chip, the gun or even the screen. Before diving into some board level repair, we would start by making some simple adjustments. You usually need to adjust the brightness and contrast of your monitor up to a level that is higher than you might prefer to get the guns to work properly. Check the voltage and wiring coming from the connector to the light guns to make sure it’s correct. You might even turn up the voltage a little higher to see if it helps at all. Make sure that the lenses located in the barrel of each gun are in good shape and are clean. Hopefully one of these tips will help you solve the problems you are having.

We have also featured your question on episode 24 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and keep us updated on your progress.

You’re on the right track! Yes, the monitor (or television as you called it) is probably bad. Now you could just replace it with a new one but we would suggest shipping your monitor chassis off for repair. Most monitor issues are related to parts on the chassis going bad instead of the tube. By just getting the chassis repaired you can save a lot of money over buying a new monitor. Check out our post on Removing And Installing A Monitor Chassis for more information.

We have also featured your question on episode 24 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and keep us updated on your progress.

Sounds like your monitor is having trouble getting power. We recommend checking the power wires with a multimeter to make sure that voltage is getting to the monitor. Your isolation transformer (should be the smaller of the 2) could be bad but this is pretty rare in our experience. The warmth that you describe coming off the chassis could mean it’s getting power. Definitely want to check that fuse to make sure that it’s good. If the fuse checks out and power is getting to your monitor then it’s probably an issue with the power supply section of your chassis. Could be a resistor or a diode that’s giving you some trouble. Here’s a flow chart that should help you out: http://www.rotheblog.com/images/arcade/misc/flowcharts/g07_flowchart.pdf. Hope that helps.

We have not heard of this problem specifically with Silent Scope 2 but monitor issues are common when working with arcade games. You mention that the game has 2 video cards. You could try swapping which monitor is going to which screen to see if the main screen display comes up on the eyepiece monitor. If it does then you know that it’s a monitor issue and not a video card issue. If the main screen is not coming on it could be a power issue or a video connection issue. Most newer monitors, however, will usually give you a no signal screen if the monitor is not getting a video connection. Try to swap the cables and let us know what you find out.